Following the team with a unique perspective on all things Phillies.Email me: PhilliesPhollowers@comcast.net – Peace, Love & Baseball – Jenn

Results tagged ‘ postseason ’

Watching the Phillies win a game against the Nationals last night and seeing the Nationals celebrate instead was like being in the Twilight Zone. Not many teams get to pop the champagne after a loss. But before the game even ended, the Nats were celebrating as the Braves lost, making Washington the new National League East Champs.

It was quite a role reversal for the Phillies who, prior to this disastrous year, won that title 5 years in a row. Sadly, they have officially traded placed with the Nationals.

It was a somber win that will guarantee the Phillies a winning record to end the season. But even that small accomplishment cannot make-up for the fact that the Phils have missed the playoffs and will go quietly into the off-season with many questions.

Perhaps less of a question now is Kyle Kendrick, who appears to finally have his act together. He pitched 7 scoreless innings last night and should be a starter next season.

Kevin Frandsen continues to hit, with 2 singles last night, even with a stress fracture in his leg. Still, he does not appear to be an option for 3rd base next year, despite his efforts.

Rookie Darin Ruf keeps slugging away and his triple last night scored the Phillies only 2 runs. But his future is also uncertain, as are many futures of players on this team. Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard are hurt again; Roy Halladay had a bad year.

The Phillies still have many questions left to answer. And they still have 2 games left to play. Game time is 7:05pm tonight.

The end of this Phillies season seems to be a long, painful check list of unfortunate events. And there are still 4 games to go, so the list may not yet be complete. Let us see where we are so far:

– The Phillies have been eliminated from the playoffs.

– Ryan Howard dropped a warm-up bat on his toe and broke it, ending his season. That makes 2 straight seasons that will end with a Howard limping off the field. Maybe the Phillies need to invest in a lot of bubble wrap?

– Rookie pitcher Tyler Cloyd has been shut-down early with a “tired arm.”

– In what seems like an attempt to get the media to talk about anything other than the worst Phillies season in a long time, the Chase Utley 3rd base experiment has been deemed “over.” He will not play 3rd base.

– Speaking of 3rd base, the Phillies have absolutely no idea who will play there in 2013.

– Last night, Roy Halladay pitched fewer than 6 innings for the 6th time this season and gave up more than 3 runs in a game for the 9th time, unofficially announcing to the world that getting old sucks.

– For the 6th time in his career, Jimmy Rollins will end the season with at least 100 runs scored. However, he will also finish having batted well under .250 for 4 out of the 6 months of the season. He also came in 4th in all of baseball in fly ball outs and 2nd in the National League.

I think those were enough depressing thoughts for the day. On a happier note, despite Halladay allowing 4 runs in 5 innings last night, the Phillies did pull out a 9-5 win over the last place Marlins. 5 players had a multi-hit game, including Utley who picked up 3 RBI.

The win puts the Phillies dead-even at 79-79 for the season with 4 games to go. The goal in these last several games should be to finish above the .500 mark. They will go after the Fish one more time today at 1:10pm.

While they are not “officially” out of it yet, the Phillies have dropped to 5 games out of the Wild Card race after 2 straight losses to the Braves. With 4 teams in front of them and only 9 games to go, the Phillies playoff hopes are all but dead.

On the mound today, Cliff Lee put forward a valiant effort, working in and out of trouble throughout the game. Despite his many challenges, he kept the Phillies in striking distance. Lee struck out 11 and allowed only 1 earned run over 8 innings. But the offense did little to help him.

Tim Hudson is a great pitcher, but the Phillies made him look totally unhittable. John Mayberry Jr. and Kevin Frandsen accounted for the only hits in the game for the Phils; yes, 2 hits…total. The only run they scored involved a walk to Jimmy Rollins, a Braves error, a sac bunt and a sac fly.

The sun was quite an issue today as well as clouds rolled in and out over the ballpark. Some plays in the field were solid, and others looked a bit complicated as the shadows wreaked havoc.

And then there was a little controversy over whether or not Frandsen was out of the box when he bunted. He was called out and manager Charlie Manuel apparently thought holding the umpires hand might help his cause:

Or maybe not…

So the Phillies went on to lose the game by a score of 2-1, all but eliminating their playoff hopes.

The Phillies won their 4th straight game Friday night in the opener against the Braves that included a pre-game salute to Chipper Jones. Jones will retire after 19 years with the Braves after this season. The Phillies gave Jones a painting of one of many home runs he hit in Citizens Bank Park.

Jones received a number of salutes while the Braves traveled to away games this year. And to thank the Phillies, Jones went 0-for-4 in the home teams’ 6-2 win over his Braves. Thanks, Larry. And Happy Retirement ;o)

However, the tables were turned on Saturday afternoon. The Braves found their bats and Roy Halladay hit another brick wall. Clearly, not all is well with Halladay as he claims. He has had only a few good starts since coming off the DL; the rest have been very un-Doc like.

This afternoon, Halladay did not even make it through 2 innings. His final line had 7 earned runs in 1.2 innings on 5 hits and 3 walks. It was ugly. Charlie Manuel looked on in disbelief before he finally ran out to the mound to lift Doc from the game.

With the Cardinals win today, the Phillies could ill afford any more losses. But the offense was weak today against the Braves pitching. The only excitement came when Ryan Howard hit a milestone home run; it was the 300th of his career, putting him in 2nd place behind Mike Schmidt all time for the Phillies.

Howard has now hit a home run in 4 straight games. Seeing his bat wake up again is a pleasant site. However, the Phillies are still in a dire situation as far as the playoffs are concerned. The loss today knocks them back to 4 games out of the Wild Card behind 3 other teams with only 10 games to go.

Just in case the Houston Astros were previously unaware, it should be clear today that both teams, especially the Phillies, have serious problems. What problem could be bigger than being the Astros, the worst team in baseball, you say? The answer is: Being beaten in 3 out of 4 games by the worst team in baseball. And all that happened while the Phillies hopes for the postseason continue to quickly dwindle away.

I had said previously that it would take a miracle for the Phillies to make the playoffs this year. I stand corrected. It will actually take 3-4 large miracles, including the complete collapse of several other teams in the National League who are ahead of the Phils in the Wild Card race. Quick, someone call a priest; Last Rights may be in order shortly. The Phillies are on life support.

Bad plays, errors and walks plus a sporadic offense contributed to the embarrassing losses against the Astros. Worse, 2 of the 3 losses came against starting pitchers who began each game with an ERA above 5.00, including yesterday’s shut-out loss and today’s 7-6 disaster.

Roy Halladay gave up 3 runs in 6 innings, but the Phillies still had the lead when he left the game. And then, for what feels like the 1,000th time this year, the bullpen blew it again. The 4-run 7th for the Astros included an error and 3 walks, one for each Phillies pitcher, although 1 was intentional.

The offense left runners stranded all over the place, 8 in all, while going only 3-for-12 with runners in scoring position. Jimmy Rollins had 3 hits and Ryan Howard picked up 2 RBI, but only after being humiliated by the Astros twice; they intentionally walked Chase Utley twice to get to Howard.

With 15 games remaining, the Phillies cannot afford more than a loss or two until the end of the season. Plus, they need a lot of other teams to lose as well. It does not look good, folks.

The Phillies have definitely been playing better lately. They are 3 games back in the race for the 2nd Wild Card spot with 17 games left to play. And so early this morning, the Phillies decided to send out Postseason ticket invoices to all of their season ticket holders in the hopes of making a run.

I wonder how many fans will actually bite? Will you or will you not shell out $400-$500 or more for 2-3 playoff tickets that the Phils may or may not play? If they do not play, the Phillies will kindly keep your money, without accruing interest of course, and apply it towards next year’s season ticket bill.

Today, I am asking myself that very question. Let us examine the recent evidence. On Thursday, the Phillies dropped a depressing game to the worst team in baseball. Many rookies were involved in the loss, making it slightly more understandable.

Then last night, the team put a whooping on the Astros and won by what was still too close a score for me, 12-6. Jimmy Rollins led off the game with his 20th home run of the season. He is now the Phillies season leader in homers, not typical for either a lead-off hitter or a shortstop. In fact, only 11 other shortstops in baseball history have had 20 home run seasons 4 times or more, like Rollins.

Hits from Chase Utley, Ryan Howard and John Mayberry Jr. turned that 1st inning into 4 huge runs to start the game before Cole Hamels even stepped onto the mound. Hamels was not super-sharp, but 3 earned runs over 7 innings was sufficient.

Mayberry continued to pound out hits and went 3-for-5 with 3 RBI. Howard also had 3 RBI on 2 hits. Another big blow came from Domonic Brown with a 2-run mega-long homer in the 7th. He hit the ball so hard the Astros pitcher actually fell to his knees in a semi-Wayne’s World gesture of, “We’re not worthy!” Ok, maybe not…he was probably just depressed.

Still, with all that offense, the Phillies committed 3 errors in the game which allowed 3 unearned runs to the Astros….again, the worst team in baseball. That kind of sloppy play is what might keep them from making the postseason.

So will you be digging deep into your pockets for potential postseason tickets? We have, according to my invoice, until 9/21/12 to decide. That is 5 more games; 2 with the Astros and 3 with the Mets. Decisions, decisions…

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